"One cannot deny the massive impact that World of Warcraft had on the video game industry"
Is this meant to be a positive? The impact it had made me look at many MMO's after as cheap clones, because that's what they roughly were, trying to appeal to a similar audience by copying bits and pieces. Even the other big titles some people referred to as 'WoW Killers' were pathetic.
If anything it had a damaging impact, and even my favourite MMO, Lineage 2, was altered to be a lot like WoW. So instead of being it's own thing, it also became a shitty version of WoW. Yeah, I loved that influence.
And don't forgot they also charged for mounts and other shit, you know, within a full priced game that you also paid for monthly. Also again, each expansion wasn't exactly cheap when they were first released either.
I'm sorry, but I can't see anything positive about it. I thought some of raid idea's were clever, but it definitely wasn't the first MMO to have those.